Spiritual Light

[A response to a question]  

Before talking about spiritual light, and what it means to walk in it, let’s start with this question: 

What is natural light? Light is that which makes things manifest, or in the words of Paul, “Whatever makes manifest is light.” (Eph. 5:13). This is true both spiritually and naturally. Natural light shows a person what is real, or what is present. It gives us an awareness of what is there, and what is NOT there. I mean, it both presents the truth of visible things to our senses, showing us what is really around us, what is really happening, what is near and certain and knowable, etc., and also removes from us various thoughts, doubts, or concerns about what isn’t true, real, certain, or present.

What is spiritual light? Spiritual light has the same basic function or power. It manifests to our inward senses or perception what is SPIRITUALLY real. It is not a belief, opinion, idea, deduction, speculation, conclusion, or interpretation that originates in the brain. It is something of a spiritual view, or an inward sight, a God-given awareness or sense of eternal truth that arises in the soul as the gift of God. I think it is correct to describe it as something of God’s view shining in man’s heart. Or, as living Truth manifesting itself in a self-evident disclosure to the senses of the inward man. Or as a measure of participation in what God sees and knows; which is why David says, “In Your light, we see light” (Psalm 36:9), and why he does NOT say, “I have my own light that You gave me.”

What does spiritual light do?  It lets you see and feel and know (in measure) what God sees and feels and knows to be real. I say “see and feel and know” because these various senses (which are outwardly distinct experiences in the natural man) are often felt to be one thing in the inward man. Spiritual light  does not just give you correct information or accurate doctrine. It confronts you and causes you to know, taste, feel, look upon and handle something of God’s living perspective and reality.

What does spiritual light expose or make manifest?  Its first work in the heart is to expose, make manifest, or reprove everything (inwardly and outwardly) that is contrary to God. “But all things that are reproved¹ are made manifest by the light.” (Eph 5:13) Light lets us see sin. It must start here, because sin is everything that has broken off from God and gone out into darkness. So the work of light begins by “shining in the darkness” (John 1:5) (“formerly you were darkness” Eph. 5:8) and exposing our true condition. Without Christ’s light, we could never distinguish between things that are different in their source, nature, and aim. Now, its first appearances in the heart are not usually accompanied by words or phrases, but rather with a sort of inward seeing, feeling and knowing that something is contrary to God. Maybe we don’t use or even know that language, but we feel that something in us or around us is wrong, evil, selfish, proud, dead, empty, vain, hypocritical, dirty, fleshy, deceitful, corrupt, or in some way opposite or not congruent with the life and nature of God. And when we see these things (by His light shining in us), then we must love the light, love its testimony, take its side against ourselves and against all that it condemns, and follow it out of all that is contrary to the nature of Christ.Light exposes us in our fallen condition, and also empowers us to follow Christ out of it, giving us to experience more and more of the “light of life” that was with God and was God in the beginning. (This is true of natural light in some degree as well; because the light of the sun not only makes things manifest, but also empowers, warms, and shares its life or energy with every plant that turns to it.)

What happens if you hate the light? Then you see it and feel it less and less, until you don’t believe that there is any such thing. “Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20) Nobody openly says that they hate the light; they simply continue to live in the darkness of their own thoughts and desires that are broken off from God. And if man continues on this path, he soon becomes, as Paul says, “past feeling” (Eph 4:19). His time on earth is misspent and wasted by giving heed to a false light (the natural mind), and the sad and eternal consequence is to remain in the darkness that he has freely chosen. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

What happens if you love the light? If you love the light, you obey it. I mean, you agree with it, submit to it, believe its testimony against yourself, and follow it (in the power it provides, which is called “grace”) out of all darkness. And then, in time (with faithfulness) you will see greater and greater manifestations of it! Because light isn’t only to reprove wickedness and sin. It is also the way that we see and enjoy and know God and His kingdom, and experience all that is true and real in Him. And if we are willing to “come to the light” and “practice the truth” which the light makes manifest (John 3:20-21), then our whole being will progressively be filled with light. Consider Luke 11:34 “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.”

What does it mean to walk in the Light? It means to turn the inward eye, the eye of your heart, AT ALL TIMES, to this light, in true humility and submission. It means to take this light for your leader, your teacher, and your judge. It means to bring your deeds, your words, and your thoughts to Christ’s light, to receive from it a correct view and perspective, and also a correct direction and path for your feet. It means to be careful to keep within the boundaries of this light (where you are safe), and also to stay out of every dark path of self and sin. It means to love its corrections, to “turn at its reproofs,” to fear moving without it, and to hate all that is contrary to it. 

1Some modern translations use the word “expose” here instead of “reprove.” But the Greek word ἐλέγχω means: “to confute, admonish, convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke, reprove.”